Checkbox Style Menu

Provides an intuitive menu for quickly changing checkbox styles in Obsidian

Features

• Quick Style Selection: Long-press a checkbox to open a style menu
• Custom Click Cycle: Optionally replace the default unchecked ↔ checked toggle with your own custom sequence of checkbox states
• 22 Checkbox Styles: Supports all 22 checkbox styles of Minimal and Things
• Customizable: Choose which styles appear in your menu
• Theme Compatible: Matches any theme or custom CSS
• Cross-Platform: Works seamlessly on desktop and mobile devices
• Touch-Optimized: Mobile-friendly with haptic feedback and optimized touch interactions

Available Checkbox Styles

Basic

• [ ] To-do
• [/] Incomplete
• [x] Done
• [-] Cancelled
• [>] Forwarded
• [<] Scheduling

Extra

• [?] Question
• [!] Important
• [*] Star
• ["] Quote
• [l] Location
• [b] Bookmark
• [i] Information
• [S] Savings
• [I] Idea
• [p] Pro
• [c] Con
• [f] Fire
• [k] Key
• [w] Win
• [u] Up
• [d] Down

Theme Adaptive

Installation

From Obsidian Community Plugins (Recommended)

1. Open Settings → Community Plugins
2. Click Browse and search for "Checkbox Style Menu"
3. Click Install, then Enable

Manual Installation

1. Download the latest release from GitHub
2. Extract to YourVaultFolder/.obsidian/plugins/checkbox-style-menu/
3. Reload Obsidian and enable in Community Plugins

Usage

Triggering the Menu

Choose your preferred method in settings:

• Long-press (default): Hold a checkbox for a moment
• Right-click: Right-click a checkbox to open the menu
• Hotkey: Assign a custom keyboard shortcut in Settings → Hotkeys

Desktop

1. Long-press a checkbox
2. A menu will appear showing your enabled checkbox styles
3. Click on any style to apply it to the checkbox

Mobile

1. Long-press a checkbox
2. A scrollable horizontal menu appears above or below the checkbox
3. Tap any style to apply it

Configuration

Access plugin settings through: Settings → Community Plugins → Checkbox Style Menu

Available Options

• Long Press Duration (Desktop): Adjust how long to hold before the menu appears (100-1000ms)
• Long Press Duration (Mobile): Separate timing for mobile devices (200-1500ms)
• Enable Haptic Feedback: Toggle vibration feedback on mobile devices
• Style Selection: Choose which checkbox styles appear in your menu

Customizing Your Menu

You can enable/disable any of the 22 available checkbox styles:

1. Go to plugin settings
2. Under "Choose which styles to show in the menu"
3. Toggle individual styles on/off
4. Only enabled styles will appear in the selection menu

Custom Checkbox Cycle

By default, clicking a checkbox toggles between unchecked ([ ]) and checked ([x]). You can override this with your own custom sequence of states instead.

Enabling a Custom Cycle

1. Go to plugin settings and toggle on Custom checkbox cycle
2. Tap any state in the cycle to open a scroll-snap picker and reassign it
3. Tap + Add to add another state (a state can only appear once in the cycle)
4. Once the cycle has 3 or more states, a remove (×) button appears on each one

Clicking a checkbox now steps through your states in order, wrapping back to the first state after the last.

Note: Like the rest of this plugin, the custom cycle only applies while editing (Live Preview / Source mode) - Reading view keeps the default toggle behavior regardless of this setting.

Tasks plugin users: if a state you choose already means something else to the Tasks plugin (or another checkbox-aware plugin), double-check that your custom cycle doesn't conflict with it.

Compatibility

• Obsidian Version: Requires Obsidian 0.15.0 or later
• Platforms: Desktop and Mobile
• Note Types: Works with any note containing markdown checkboxes
• Live-Preview Only: Does not work in Reading view or Source mode
• Requires Compatible Theme: Any theme that adds checkbox styles (e.g. Minimal or Things)

Third-Party Plugin Compatibility

Tasks Plugin Integration

Optional integration with the Tasks plugin. When enabled, Tasks can add done dates when you mark checkboxes as complete using the Checkbox Style Menu.

Enabling Tasks Integration

1. Install and enable the Tasks plugin
2. Open Settings → Community Plugins → Checkbox Style Menu
3. Expand the Advanced section
4. Toggle on Enable Tasks plugin integration

Known Limitations

• Cancelled → Complete Changing from [-] (cancelled) → [x] (complete) will not trigger a done date. This is because this transition is not part of Tasks’ normal completion workflow. To add a done date, Tasks expects the sequence [-] → [ ] → [x].

• Complete → Custom State Changing from [x] (completed) → any custom checkbox style (such as [!], [?], or [>]) will not remove the done date. This is because Tasks expects the sequence [x] → [ ] to remove it.

All other transitions (such as [ ] → [x], [!] → [x], or [x] → [ ]) work seamlessly with Tasks' done date feature.

Note: The Set done date on every completed task feature must be enabled in Tasks' settings for this integration to work.

Troubleshooting

Menu Not Working

• Check that you're long-pressing (not just clicking) a checkbox
• Ensure you have a compatible theme enabled
• Verify the long-press duration in settings matches your preference

Mobile Issues

• Make sure you're not scrolling while trying to long-press
• Make sure you're not missing the checkbox (they can be small on mobile)

Contributing

If you would like to contribute, please feel free to:

• Report bugs or request features via GitHub Issues
• Submit pull requests with improvements

Privacy & Data

All operations are performed locally. No user data is collected, stored, or transmitted at any point.

License

This project is licensed under the 0BSD License - you are free to use it however you'd like.

Author

Developed by ReticentEclectic.

Support

If this plugin made your life easier and you’d like to say thanks, consider buying me a coffee: Ko-fi.

Disclaimer

This plugin has been primarily developed and tested on macOS and iOS. While it's designed to work across all platforms and themes, it is not thoroughly tested across all operating systems and use cases.